Providing information, education, and training to build knowledge, develop skills, and change attitudes that will lead to increased independence, productivity, self determination, integration and inclusion (IPSII) for people with developmental disabilities and their families.

WASHINGTON, DC--The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday
passed legislation that would make it easier for schools to remove students for
"behavior problems", even if the behavior were related to their
disabilities.

The bill, H.R. 1350, is the House version of the bill to reauthorize the
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. The IDEA was passed in 1976, but
is required to be reauthorized every few years.

Under the measure, sponsored by Delaware Republican Michael N. Castle, a
student with a disability could be expelled simply for violating a school's
code of conduct, and the school would not have to determine whether the
behavior was related to the student's disability. Under current law, schools
may suspend such students for bringing drugs, guns or other weapons to
school.

"Those discipline provisions can create a nightmare, because we're
stripping away civil rights protections," Lynda Van Kuren, a spokeswoman for
the Council for Exceptional Children, told the New York Times.

Castle's bill had included a provision that would have forced the
federal government to pay 40 percent of schools' special education costs within
the next seven years. But language that would have made that mandatory was
struck down by House Education and Work Force Committee chair John A. Boehner,
an Ohio Republican.

Congress had promised in 1976 that the federal government would fund 40
percent of IDEA. But the federal contribution has never gone beyond 18
percent.

DREDF, the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund, Inc., has
outlined other provisions in the bill that concern advocates because they would
further weaken protections for students with disabilities.

The Senate is expected to present its version of IDEA reauthorization
later this month.

The GCDD is funded under the provisions of P.L. 106-402. The federal law also provides funding to the Minnesota Disability Law Center,the state Protection and Advocacy System, and to the Institute on Community Integration, the state University Center for Excellence. The Minnesota network of programs works to increase the IPSII of people with developmental disabilities and families into community life.